The Cast
by divergentfan4life
Summary: Max and the Flock are not the only bird-kids around. Another group of avian-human hybrids, the Cast, are about to join the world of Max and the gang, led by their fearless leader, Quincy. What will happen when their two groups meet? Will feathers fly?


**A/N: Hi guys! So I know this little story (my first ever story!) is kind of out of the ordinary for me; it doesn't include Will Herondale. But I read the Maximum Ride series a while ago and I couldn't get over the fact of how cool it would be if people could fly. I toyed with the idea of writing a fic, but kinda dropped it cause I didn't have a plot or characters, and there was just a general lack of ideas in general. And then the other night the name "Quincy" just hopped into my mind and I thought _yup here's my Max story!_ So here it is! BTW I need a name for Quincy's "flock" and I found the term "cast" which refers to a group of hawks. How fitting. And yes, 5SOS fans, Ashton's looks are kinda based off of Ashton Irwin (who I love) but my Ashton is going to be nothing like the Ash we all know and love from 5SOS. I hope you enjoy anyway!**

**Chapter 1: Wake-Up Call**

When my eyes snapped open, the morning was calm and quiet, free of the usual cacophony of five tall, rowdy mutant children and their (okay, not so much more contained) leader. It was not yet dawn, and the sun was just beginning to break over the mountain.

I rose, threw on yesterday's hoodie and jeans, and took to the air for a morning flight and scouting. I let my invisibility slip over me like a cloak out of instinct, even though there was no need. We were all alone, hidden in a valley accessible only by chopper. And of course, by flying. There was nothing that needed scouting, as usual, but the crisp morning air felt good as it sifter through my feathers, my hair, lifting me higher and higher. When I landed, after an hour of aimless wheeling and soaring, I was breathless and warm.

I crossed the lawn and bounded up the stairs, pulling the door open.

The house was still silent. _Suspicious. _

I pulled my invisibility over me, making myself transparent. I snuck through the house, my hyper-attentive senses combing my surroundings. _If the little thugs are going to hijack me_, I thought, _they'd better not have...__  
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Strong, sinewy arms grabbed me from behind, and before I had any chance to react, scooped me up and dumped me unceremoniously on the L-couch in our living room. Only a lifetime of having instincts ingrained in me as deep as my fingerprints kept me from shrieking, but the surprise was enough to make me lose my invisibility. The other 4 mutant-devils jumped on me then, their faces alight with maniac glee as they threw pillows on me and bounced all over my helpless form.

As soon as my initial surprise wore off, I was on my feet, freeing myself of bird-kids and pillows alike.

I turned slowly, shoving my smile down with both hands and pulling on a poker face.

Green eyes met brown as Ashton looked down at me, almost 6' to my 5'8. His lips quirked into a smirk, and he looked unrepentant.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty".

"You," I whispered, making my voice low and deadly, "are so dead." Ashton was the only person in the world who could see through my invisibility, the only one who my transparency had no affect on, so the cast liked to use him to sneak up on me.

A tawny eyebrow rose ever so slightly, and his grin widened. "Catch me if you can." He winked at me. "Three, two..."

He took off out the front door on "two", leaving me in the house, stock-still.

But not for long.

My legs, acting on their own accord, ate up the ground beneath me, and after three long strides, I through myself into the air, snapping out my wings and stroking down. Wind swept through my feathers as the ground shrank beneath me.

I rose to where Ashton was hovering, his golden 15-foot wings glinting in the morning light.

"That," I said, glaring at him in mock anger, "was not very nice."

He angled his wings downward slightly until he was almost upside down. "Aw, Quince, you're no fun. How can I say no to Ryker when he..."

Ash trailed off, realizing the incongruence of his statement as I shot him a pointed look.

"Ash, you literally can't say no to Ryker, ever," I pointed out. Ryker, the youngest member of the cast, among other talents, had the ability to change and alter the emotions of the people around him. Although he rarely used his talent on us, Ashton had given in to his hazel-eyed innocent act one too many times, and Ryker frequently took advantage of the fact.

"True." He shrugged. "But the opportunity was too perfect to pass up."

I sighed. "I need to work on making my invisibility stronger. Especially around you."

He laughed, flipping back over and dodging between my wing strokes to jab me in the stomach. "They call it a genetically modified skill for a reason, Quincy. I'll always be able to see you."

I rolled my eyes and grinned at him. "But you can't catch me."

I tucked my wings in and dove.

The ground raced up at me at over three hundred miles an hour, and it was seconds before I snapped my wings out, leveling myself and stopping my acceleration before I was a pancake on the ground. Ashton landed right behind me.

I grinned back at him. "Told you so."

He just shook his head and pinched my cheek. "You won't win that easily, rosebud."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Really? Well, my little dumpling, I guess we'll just have to see about that. And call me 'rosebud' again, and I will personally take a belt to you."

He tousled my messy hair as we walked onto the porch, stopping when we heard a very loud, very recognizable voice.

"How much do you want to bet that Quince and Ash are probably making out on a beach right now?" Soren asked, his mouth obviously full. "Ashton's always giving Quincy puppy eyes, you know."

I glanced at Ash, giving him an amused look, and the tips of his ears burned bright red. We leaned closer to the door to listen.

"They need to get together, seriously." A second voice, this one Ciara's, floated through the door. "All these sneak-away sessions must mean..."

I couldn't control myself any longer. I opened the door, yanked it open much more forcefully then necessary.

Ciara and Soren sat on the kitchen table. Soren had a jar of Nutella in one hand and a giant spoon in the other, and Ciara was tipping a bag of chocolate chips into her open mouth. They both froze when they saw me come in; chocolate chips spilled on the floor and the spoonful of Soren's Nutella missed its mark; he looked like Rudolf the Brown-Nosed Bird-Kid.

"Must. Mean. What?" My words were icy and dangerous.

Ciara's two-toned eyes were huge. Innocent. "Umm, we were just saying, that, like you know, you and Ash were...practicing? Flying?" She tried to keep her eyes on my face and not look at Ashton, but I felt him shift next to me, and her face crumpled in annoyance. "Ash! Ugh, you're the worst! No one can have any private conversations around here with you around!"

I didn't need to see Ashton to know he was biting back a snicker.

"Ci," he said, a laugh threatening to break his serious voice in half, "None of us are telepathic. Your private conversations are safe from me. Unless, of course, you lie about them, in which case I will know you are wrong." He raised an eyebrow at her.

She rolled her eyes in irritation, throwing her hands into the air. "So Soren and I were having a little chat. About you and Quincy. Big deal! Everyone thinks it's true. Even Ryk and Raven."

"For your information," I told her, "I was out kicking Ashton's butt. Which I'm getting ready to do to both of you unless you PUT AWAY THE JUNK AND MAKE BREAKFAST."

Ashton and I collapsed laughing as soon as we were out of earshot, and he shot me a look.

"'Kicking my butt', were you, Quince?" he smirked. "Kissing it, would be more accurate."

I raised one glacial eyebrow as I paused. "Speaking a little too soon, aren't you, Ashton? I haven't even gotten warmed up yet."

"What?"

Two black-headed bundles of blankets and feathers tumbled down the spiraling staircase.

Raven's big, luminous hazel eyes looked up at me, grinning mischievously as she slowly let herself be camouflaged into the wall behind her, leaving only her head floating creepily in midair. "What are we warming up for?"

Squashing the urge to turn invisible just to show her I could, I crossed my arms over my chest and tried my best to look leaderly.

"I," I said, raising an eyebrow at her, "am warming up for..." Suddenly my amused irritation turned to a drunken, euphoric bliss, threatening to envelop my mind. But the strange emotion didn't last long. I fought free, lunging forward. "Ryker!"

The seven year old cackled maniacally, dodging out of my reach, but not out of Ashton's. Ryker was quickly caught in Ashton's strong arms, and I managed to snag Raven as she tried to dart past. Together, Ashton and I half-dragged, half-carried the two youngest cast members to the couches in the living room.

Ciara and Soren had already seated themselves in the two recliners, so Ashton and I dumped Ryker and Raven on the loveseat before sprawling on the L-couch. Ciara and Soren had "made" breakfast, per my instructions. The coffee tables dotting our living room were laden with muffins, bagels, fruit, and juice.

"So," I said, surveying my cast as they fell on the food like vultures onto prairie dogs. "We know what's happening today, right?"

4 pairs of blank, wide eyes stared at me. All mouths paused, half open; all except Ashton, who sat placidly beside me, housing another apple in two fast gulps.

"Come on, guys," I pressed. "We went over it yesterday, remember? When we got in last night?"

Nobody seemed to have acknowledged the memory - it had probably slipped into the department of their minds reserved to inconsequential facts.

"We're going to make a public appearance today guys, wings and all." I raised a single eyebrow. "Sound familiar to everyone?"

"Am I allowed to set myself on fire in public again?" Raven asked, all hazel-eyed innocence.

"Absolutely not." I rolled my eyes. "Unless you enjoyed being doused by fire extinguisher fluid and want a repeat experience." I grinned at her, remembering our last public appearance.

"That goes for all of us, guys," I instructed them. "No fire, no changing the shapes of stuff, and," I shot a pointed look at Ashton, "no telekinesis. We're running out of the houses Ezra left us, guys. I want to stay in this one for as long as possible So no using abilities in public unless it is absolutely necessary."

This was our fifth home in less than two years. Ashton, Soren and I had been engineered in the same scientific facility, and when Ash and I were six and Soren was three, an extremely wealthy billionaire named Ezra Pierpont had purchased us, along with Ciara, baby Raven, and later, Ryker. Ezra had raised us in a secret mansion back east, deep in the green hills of Connecticut, had fed us, cared for us, had taught us how to fly. He was the closed thing we had to a parent. But two years ago, Ezra had been killed in a motorcycle accident, leaving his fortune to us, along with numerous luxurious houses across the country. When he died, we tried living out of our Connecticut home, but, seeing as we had no survival skills, we were quickly outed. Then came Maine, Chicago, Raleigh. We had had spent a solid four months in Sacramento, but our interlude there ended after Raven, in a flare of temper, had ignited herself. In the middle of Macy's. In the middle of a line of kids waiting to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

It had not been pretty, to say the least.

So the cast had packed up, again, and hauled our feathery butts here, to this gorgeous, fully outfitted seaside villa on the fringes of the Oregon Coast.

There were six of us in my cast: Ryker and Raven, siblings aged 7 and 9, Ciara - 14, Soren, who was 12, and Ashton, who was fifteen like me. We were human-avian hybrids, all of us, with just enough bird genes to give us wings and light-boned, strong, lean bodies. In short, we could fly.

"So," I said, breaking out of my reverie. "Comprende?"

Ashton smirked at me. "What about when we need to drive a car like normal people?"

I smirked back. "Then I, of course, being your selfless leader, will change into an extremely hot middle aged women, Raven will camouflage herself into the seat, and Ryker will attempt to change the emotions of any policemen who try to stop us. And you and Ciara will pretend to be twins or something."

Ciara made a face at that. "Please. With my eyes, no one will buy that." She rolled those eyes; one golden, one a dark, sparkling blue. I though she looked gorgeous; she thought she looked like a chameleon.

I smiled at her. "Anyway, we shouldn't need to drive. We have _wings,_ Ash."

To punctuate my point, I unfurled my dark, glossy brown wings, my primaries glinting reddish gold in the light. Fourteen feet in span, they took up most of the couch, and nearly hit Ashton in the head.

He smirked at me, dodging my wing and letting his own 15-foot wings loose from the holes in his shirt. Inside, without the bright glare of the sun, the multicolored brown feathers stood out with clarity against the dominant gold.

Like the mature person I was, I stuck out my tongue at him. "Show off."

The rest of the cast was watching, looking skeptical.

"All right, guys," Ciara said. "While Ash and Quincy finish up making out on the couch, let's get ready to go."

Ash's smirk widened, and I felt heat rise to my cheeks.

Turning slowly, highly aware of the green-eyed stare that was locked on my face, I faced my giggling cast, arms crossed. "We're out in five." I said, as neutrally as I could. "Move your butts."

**So what'd you think, guys? Please review and follow! I kinda have some plot ideas so I think I'm gonna continue this one, but any ideas for scenes or little details about the cast would be great. I've already kinda planned out their looks, abilities, wings, etc, but nothing is final yet. Let me know if you awesome folks have ideas! :)**


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